Worklog N64p MkIII

Long time enthusiast and tinkerer of all things portable N64, although, not posted much to forums. It's been 3-4 years since I last delved into building a portable as I had to abruptly stop my MkII due to home life being turned upside down rather suddenly.

Any who, I'm back, reinvigorated to tackle my MkIII but this time using a lot of new toys and skills I have developed over the last few years.

My basic design will follow on from my MkII, which is loosely based around Zenloc/ Loctronicz design from some time back.
However, I will be making the case out of solid acrylic CNC'd out on a router; my previous versions used a homemade vacuum formed case using sheet polystyrene.

Too many details for me to list here right now, but I will update it as I go along. Here is a pic of my MkII before I had to stop for your enjoyment.

This time I look to improve it greatly and will be looking for any advice people can offer or help with!

- Controller inputs; looking to use the PIF inputs, was slightly confused by the U8 removal posts. (I'm not removing the U8) do I just wire onto one of the PIF pins for each controller data line as I suspect? Or do I need to bridge the two pins as per the U8 removal?

- Battery charging circuits - I've looked at the extensive sticky regarding the latest info (a lot better info since my days on Mod Retro researching these things! haha). One question, I'm looking at getting one of the Charging Management Boards this time round, as they sound a lot better than the basic boards I was using on my MkII. My question is, do they need a smart charger input? Or does it just require a standard 12v DC power supply input?https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intellig...h=item2143b30751:g:bHgAAOSwh8NbTE6o:rk:4:pf:0

I've been trimming the board. Started with the left, top and right. Tested each time.

Today I've trimmed the bottom and now it's dead

Any ideas on what I could have knackered? I've trimmed some of the surface mount components which originally led to the controller ports. Would removing any of these have killed it? All cut tracks have been re-routed I'm at a bit of a loss.

Yep, sanded all edges. Found I broke one of the tracks which went along the back of the board but I fixed that. Still nothing though.
The only thing I can think is the surface mount components which went to the controller ports; I shouldn't have cut through them?

I was checking an untouched board with a multimeter and it looks like one of the components was a 1K2 resistor between 3.3v and ground? Would reconnecting a resistor fix this at all? :/

Yep, sanded all edges. Found I broke one of the tracks which went along the back of the board but I fixed that. Still nothing though.
The only thing I can think is the surface mount components which went to the controller ports; I shouldn't have cut through them?

I was checking an untouched board with a multimeter and it looks like one of the components was a 1K2 resistor between 3.3v and ground? Would reconnecting a resistor fix this at all? :/

Click to expand...

Yeah some of those are important, it's worth a try at least.

"You don't climb Mt Everest as a "challenge" when you can barely walk up the hill to your house" - Me

"you just have to hit autoadjust until it stops being a cunt" - ShockSlayer

"If you think a hot dog is a sandwich, then you're an idiot" -GingerOfOz